Is it weird that I'm pleased by the fact that both my fiance's parents marriage, and my upcoming marriage will, by their very EXISTENCE, cause some people to have aneurisms?

For some weird reason, the thought that our mixed-race marriage will cause some trogolydtes UNFATHOMABLE ANGER just tickles the shit out of me. Which is weird, because normally the idea of people who've never met me disliking me/hating me causes me unnecessary and large amounts of anxiety, but not in this case._________________"No, but evil is still being --Is having reason-- Being reasonable! Mousie understands? Is always being reason. Is punishing world for not being... Like in head. Is always reason. World should be different, is reason."
-Ed, from Digger

TYT: PM Of Turkey Blames Protests On..._________________A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want? ~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Fox makes things up. You cant trust them - but you warn everyone about the potential lack f eutrality of Wikipedia?

Quote:

I would post news articles (as per the thread), but there are tons coming from both sides of the issue and I think wikipedia has the best chance of being unbiased.

Quote:

I hate FOX news as much as the next person (I actually didn't know of their involvement, I had thought it was strictly the AssocPress that was involved)

My view of the matter is informed from the Wikipedia article. I don't watch FOX news. Or any other news program for that matter. I just keep tabs on the Associated Press. As far as I know, it was AP's phone records that were seized (according to the Wikipedia article), not FOX's. Furthermore, the allegations of treating a journalist as a criminal co-conspirator as mentioned in the wikipedia article came not from FOX, but instead cited from a Washington Post article, which is also mentioned in the Guardian:

The Guardian, UK wrote:

The focus of the Post's report yesterday is that the DOJ's surveillance of Rosen, the reporter, extended far beyond even what they did to AP reporters. The FBI tracked Rosen's movements in and out of the State Department, traced the timing of his calls, and - most amazingly - obtained a search warrant to read two days worth of his emails, as well as all of his emails with Kim. In this case, said the Post, "investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material." It added that "court documents in the Kim case reveal how deeply investigators explored the private communications of a working journalist".

The government is secretly collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon under a top-secret court order, according to the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Obama administration is defending the National Security Agency’s need to collect such records, but critics are calling it a huge over-reach.

Is it weird that I'm pleased by the fact that both my fiance's parents marriage, and my upcoming marriage will, by their very EXISTENCE, cause some people to have aneurisms?

For some weird reason, the thought that our mixed-race marriage will cause some trogolydtes UNFATHOMABLE ANGER just tickles the shit out of me. Which is weird, because normally the idea of people who've never met me disliking me/hating me causes me unnecessary and large amounts of anxiety, but not in this case.

That covers Obama's 2008 promise that, if elected, he would end warrantless wiretapping.And it turns out he did! He went to a secret court to get a secret warrant that covered the entire country. Boom! All of that now has a warrant, so warrantless wiretapping has been ended!

It's like one of those genies that gives you *exactly* what you wished for._________________“Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation”
yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation.

I remember arguing with people during the Bush presidency that if they provide horrible broad powers to this president they like, those have a hance of eing bestowed on a president they don't like. I hope those people remember their part in this mess._________________::crisis mode::

A senior official of the administration said in a statement released on Thursday night that the email surveillance program is not targeted at Americans and that it is not only legally permissible but also an essential tool in the administration's anti-terror efforts.

During the tenure of the Obama Administration, six Americans working for the U.S. Government with security clearances have had criminal cases filed against them by federal authorities under the Espionage Act of 1917, more than all prior administrations combined:[1]

Shamai Leibowitz, a contract linguist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation who was convicted of leaking information from embassy wiretaps.[2]
Jeffrey Sterling, a former Central Intelligence Agency employee who was indicted for allegedly revealing classified information to journalist James Risen.[3]
John Kiriakou, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst who pleaded guilty to passing classified information to a reporter.[4]
Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst who pleaded guilty to passing classified information to the Wikileaks organization.[5]
Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a senior analyst at the Office of National Security at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who is charged with disclosing national defense information to reporter James Rosen.[6]
Thomas Drake, a former National Security Agency senior executive who was charged with willfull retention of national defense information. The charges were dismissed on the eve of his trial.[7]

so this starts with stating that in the 91 years since the espionage act passed, there have been fewer than 6 criminal cases filed. this covers u.s. involvement in two world wars, the cold war, and numerous terrorist activities. i'm kinda surprised that in all that time, there were fewer than six cases.

but of the six: 1 resulted in a conviction and 2 pleaded guilty, vs. one case dropped. the other 2 are presumably still on course for trial, but even if both cases are dropped or the people involved are acquitted, that still 50% of the cases where it appears the charge was warranted. sounds like they are doing what needs to be done. maybe other administrations didn't?

in short: i think this is mostly fox and the republicans looking to attack the administration. they've attacked in the past because there were national security leaks, now apparently they don't like the idea that national security leaks are being prosecuted. there's no winning with these guys._________________aka: neverscared!
a flux of vibrant matter

On a separate, top-secret program called PRISM in which intelligence analysts have accessed the servers of nine leading Internet companies, including Google and Facebook, Obama implied that members of congressional intelligence committees have been briefed.

"These are programs that have been authorized by broad bipartisan majorities repeatedly since 2006," he said. "Your duly elected representatives have been consistently informed on exactly what we're doing."

My jugular vein is in danger of actually detaching from my neck and turning into a decorative fountain.

I could come up with multiple scenarios making for good policy that involved wireless snooping, but nothing about this is what I would consider that, I instead think it is all the guaranteed result of the legacy we guaranteed with the USA PATRIOT act

questions of right and wrong aside, all that I state is that I am surprised people weren't already assured this was totally happening

Yeah, I can't really muster up outrage because I knew this was likely happening already. And it started getting to be like this during the previous administration, with all the wartime powers and unusually broad interpretations of executive authority that was exercised. It became the new normal. It probably would have even if Bush hadn't been re-elected. Presidents just don't give up powers the office has accumulated.
It makes me sad more than mad, really.